1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates primarily to the field of outdoor furniture and secondarily to personal flotation devices: more particularly it relates to the field of bean bag furniture adaptable for outdoor and aquatic usage.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The bean bag as an article of furniture is generally known in the art of interior design and furnishing. The cover of a conventional bean bag is typically made out of an expandable material, such as polyvinyl chloride. The cover is typically expandable in order to allow the resilient, flowable pellets which partially fill the bag to flow easily therein, thus enabling the bag to conform to contours of the user's body. If the cover of a conventional bean bag were not made of such expandable material, the cover would tend to restrict the flow of the pellets and to cause them to pack under the user's weight rather than to flow resulting in a relatively hard and uncomfortable seat.
The expandable polyvinyl chloride cover, used in conventional bean bags, is unsuitable for use in an outdoor environment where it would be subjected to prolonged exposure to temperature extremes, water and solar radiation. Such exposure would cause significant deterioration of the cover in a relatively short time. In addition, the polyvinyl chloride material with backing used in the conventional bean-bag, would permit and aid the growth of mildew when used outdoors. While water-resistant materials which are compatible with outdoor exposure are known in the art, they are typically non-expandable. Thus, before the present invention, they have not been considered suitable for use as a bean-bag cover because their non-expandability results in a relatively hard and uncomfortable bean-bag. Consequently the bean-bag was relegated exclusively to indoor use. However, the present invention makes use of such water-resistant material as a bean-bag cover while achieving an acceptable degree of comfort. Thus, by virtue of this invention, the comfort, convenience and enjoyment of the bean-bag has been extended to the entire world of outdoor living, sports and activity.
The art of design and fabrication of personal flotation devices (hereinafter referred to as PFD's), such as life saving equipment, is old and well developed. Inventive activity in this field of art has gone beyond the design of PFD's for use only in emergency situations, and now includes designs suitable for dual functions. For example, the prior art discloses PFD's capable of serving both as a life preserver and as objects of water sports. However, such devices are designed to function exclusively in water and have no other use.
The prior art also discloses various articles of furniture which can function as a PFD in a water-related emergency. For example, an air-filled or solid filled seat cushion for use on boats has been designed to also serve as a life vest or buoy. Another example is a shipboard sleeping mattress which is convertable into a life raft. In general, the dual-purpose furniture known in the prior art has been filled with air or soild floatable particles such as cork or wood shavings. More recently, solid air filled elements, such as closed cell foamed plastic and ping pong balls have been employed as the flotation means. However, in most cases, the item of dual-purpose furniture has a measure of rigidity attributable to either (i) use of a semi-rigid foam material, (ii) rigid structural members, or (iii) a semi-rigid inflatable form defined by the ribs, seams and panelling of an exterior covering. In the case of air filled or inflatable dual-purpose furniture, these items generally lack the structural support required of outdoor furniture. Furthermore, many PFD's known in the art, while useable as outdoor furniture in their original state, are not so useable again, once they have been used as a PFD in a water-related emergency. This is due to poor drainage of the PFD and the use of materials which, while perhaps less expensive, are not water resistant. The present invention overcomes this limitation of the prior art and retains its dual capability as outdoor furniture and PFD.